The rating deviation, RD, together with the rating represent the interval
where the true skill of the player is. For example
for a player with rating 1800 and RD of 100, we can be 95%
confident that his real strength is in the interval from 1600 to 2000.

We want RD to be small in order to be more specific, but at the same
time we want it to be large enough, so that ratings converge fast to
values close to the true skill of the player.

Rank and rating are different. Rank is simply the number of players
that have a better rating than the player being ranked.

Questions And Answers

The list of top players is full of hackers and stat padders.
It should be easy to filter them, why don't you do it?

Every system can be gamed and I won't play internet police. I want you
to realize that those players are a minority and their effect on the
overall rankings is insignificant. I'll add some details that should
make them stand out more (battle rank, minutes played). You are
encouraged to report cheaters to Sony, because usually the means to
cheat this leaderboard require you to break ingame rules and what
Sony calls "the spirit of the Game". Check out their
EULA and
Terms of Service.
Also get in contact with the ingame admins when they announce
their presence.

Why make this leaderboard?

I've had it in mind ever since I started playing, which was as soon as
the game had its official release. I took the chance to learn a few
things and while I was sceptical at first, the results satisfy me, so
I decided to publish them. Please don't take any numbers too seriously,
there are many ways to play the game. Raising your rating by 100
points probably isn't worth the pain you may have to endure.

What about adding feature X?

I won't go into detail what will and won't be implemented, as it
may change at any time. If I add something interesting, I'll
announce it in the planetside reddit - /r/planetside.

How can it be possible to accurately rank people against each
other across servers? Seeing as they will never fight each other.
- ultimatox on reddit

While some players have multiple characters on different servers,
the majority of the players will never meet. Many won't meet even
when they play on the same server. We'll have to trust some factors
that are out of our hands on this one. SOE is balancing the
populations on the servers by rotating the recommended severs from
time to time. This should in theory make the skill averages of the
different servers the same. Another point is that players keep
correcting their play style from feedback that comes from a variety
of shared sources (reddit, forums, patch notes, ranklists), not
just ingame.

Can you really evaluate player skill simply by kills? The top
rated on your list will -always- be MAX/vehicle farmers. Or, for
example, the guy who's currently ranked #2 who has over a third of
his kills from AI mines. - Sattorin on reddit

Some play styles are more rewarding than others. The top players
will use whatever gives them the most advantage. To compete with
them you will have to challenge them directly (or players in the
same rating range). How you do that is up to you. It can be with
vehicles or a group of 3 friends with decimators. You could
try to replicate their strategy if it seems so easy.

Is the only thing determining
skill on this list a players ability to find and kill other players
of higher skill on this list? How did you then initially determine
rankings? Its a cool idea but seems rather arbitrary. - Phrygen on reddit

All kills award rating, but if your opponent's rating is low
compared to yours (think for example 200 points difference) you
will win a point or even just a fraction of a point. Your opponent
won't lose much rating either, because as far as the model is
concerned, everything worked out as expected. The better player
won. If however the low ranked player wins, his prize will be much
bigger and the penalty for the high ranked player will be much bigger.

How are you rating players?

I'm using the glicko-2 rating system, which is self correcting.
New players start out with
1500 rating and 100 rating deviation. The relatively high rating deviation
allows them to move fast up or down the ladder for a while. Soon enough
they find a spot where they perform consistently and the deviation
starts to drop.

Analysis And Thoughts

On Inflation

There is ratings inflation among the highest rated players. It was
expected, it's hard to rate accurately players that never lose.
The model correctly places those players above everyone else, so I'm
still happy. Ratings can't grow indefinetely by killing a lower rated
player, so it's interesting to see where the roof is.

On Inactive Players

Inactive players can be dealt with in many ways, but all have
disadvantages. Most implementations assign an inactive player a
provisional status and he's excluded from ranklists. I decided to
delete them instead. It's easy to get your rating back, because as soon
you come back, you will get ranked again. There's no need to grind or
invest a lot of time, it's enough to win against some strong players.
This loses us historical
achievments, but they aren't too meaningful, because the game,
the player base and
ratings are always moving. Comparing a current rating with one from
the past will be nothing but misleading.

On Infantry Against Vehicles

I've never considered making separate lists for vehicle-only or
knife-only players. I wanted to create an overview, a summary of the
playerbase, not an in-depth analysis. I expected the top players to be
vehicle-only, the game was designed that way. It seems this is slowly
changing in favor of infantry players.

On Interpretation Of The Data

A player can't be summarized by a few numbers, I'm not pretending
to have achieved such a thing. Use the data to help you make up your
mind about a player. A person is multidimensional, some are
better at aim, others at strategy and patience,
others at teamplay, others at trashtalking and drama. Sadly the SOE
census doesn't show that much. Hopefully in the future teams (squads,
platoons, alliances of the people shooting eachother) will
appear in the census and someone will make yet another ranklist.
Support players are not accurately represented at all. This includes
squad/platoon leaders, people that play for objectives (generators,
capturing bases), medics, drivers and pilots that give all shots to
their gunners, people with playstyles that generate them only assists.
Even if events from those players were available in the census, I
can't imagine incorporating them in a way that makes sense. It would be
easy to create separate leaderboards for support players,
but that won't clarify
how they fit in the grand scheme of things. Maybe someone will find a
way. I hope I've set some foundation that will inspire others.

On Rating Medics

Note this isn't implemented, it's just a mental exercise.
What does it mean to ressurect a player? Killing someone makes your
team stronger because there's one less opponent and because you gained
some XP. Ressurecting someone makes your team stronger because there's
one more ally and because you gained some XP. It doesn't take away the
XP from the killer. So at first glance
they are pretty much the same, at least for the guy doing the
killng/ressurecting. Who to penalize and who to reward? I'd do it like this:
a player gets killed, which awards rating to the killer and penalizes
the guy that died. A medic comes and resurrects, this reverts the
previous change in ratings and instead awards the medic and penalizes
the killer. The guy that died gets away with no rating loss, no XP. The medic
wins rating and XP, the killer loses rating and wins XP, he got outplayed
by a medic, because he gave away his position, lost ammo, lost grenades,
lost health and shields, lost potential. But what if the resurrected guy
gets killed again? Should the medic keep his rating reward? Probably not,
they still get away with XP.

On Things That Oneshot Infantry, Past And Present

I love that, so I had to mention it. Never forget.
Might be interesting to newer players.
TR version, but the rest are similar enough.

Weapon

Notes

Tsar-42

cqc bolt sniper; headshot required

M77-B

bolt sniper; headshot required

SR-7

bolt sniper; headshot required

RAMS 50

bolt sniper; headshot required

Nighthawk

auto shotgun; headshot required

Barrage

shotgun; headshot required

Haymaker

shotgun; headshot required

Uppercut

shotgun

Blackjack

shotgun

Trac 5 S grenade

carabine with grenade launcher; use engi for infinite grenades

Pounder HEG (high explosive grenades)

max weapon; both arms reqired; had 2 ammo on each hand with
ok splash, fast reload and fast refire;
some gifted people could use them to snipe from
hundred of meters away. it was viable, because they couldn't
be countersniped - nothing oneshots maxes

NC MAX

honorary mention, because they have a special place in my heart.
they are one of the
biggest failures of the game. the Grinder, Hacksaw, Mattock and
Scattercannon were used by biolab residents 24/7 in a point and
click adventure; shotguns; 6-8 ammo on each hand; ridiculous range for
a shotgun; fast refire; wait for people at corners or charge into
rooms

Anti Vehicle MANA Turret

engineer ability; immobile; render distance range; mouse seeking

Claymore

anti infantry mine

Tank Mine

anti vehicle mine

ML-7

dumb fire rocket launcher

Grounder

anti air lockon rocket launcher

SKEP Launcher

anti vehicle lockon rocket launcher

NS Decimator

dumb fire rocket launcher

Prowler HEAT

has 2 shots

Prowler AP

has 2 shots

Prowler HE (high explosive)

has 2 shots. used to have an insane blast radius, so even if you
missed your shots, people died. was nice for spamming towers

Prowler Halberd

very little bullet drop

Lightning HEAT

Lightning AP

Lightning HE

Sunderer Bulldog Front

6 ammo

Sunderer Bulldog Rear

6 ammo

Sunderer Fury Front

5 ammo

Sunderer Fury Rear

5 ammo

Flash Fury

5 ammo

Flash Renegade

shotgun; headshot required?

Harasser Fury

5 ammo

Harasser Halberd

very little bullet drop

Galaxy Bulldog Left

6 ammo

Galaxy Bulldog Right

6 ammo

Liberator Tank Buster (nose)

need to be close range and to hit with both bullets

Liberator Bulldog (rear)

6 ammo

Liberator Zepher (belly)

6 ammo; night vision had 500-700 range and the zepher had insane
splash and less bullet drop. you could fly over platoons
and wipe them in a clip;
weapon of choice of the first br100s in the game

Liberator Dalton (belly)

had very little bullet drop

Mosquito Rocket Pods

1-2 direct hits, don't remember

Ground Roadkills

Prowler, Lightning, Flash, Harasser, Sunderer; great way to
teamkill if wep. locked

Aircraft Roadkills

Mosquito, Liberator, Galaxy; great way to teamkill if wep. locked

Falling Through Terrain

bug; you could fall through the map pretty easily

Sunderer Roof

bug; jump on a sunderer and die

Generator Explosion

when overloaded by a friendly - teamkills; can get you wep. locked;

Base Anti-Vehicle Turret Shot

Base Turret (any) Repair

sit on a turret and watch yourself die when it pops up when
someone finishes repairing it

Base Turret (any?)

stay near a turret when it turns - you die when it touches you

Aircraft Takeoff

sit on top of a plane when it takes off - you die

Liberator Vehicle Lock

get 1-2 gunners, get in the sky, lock the vehicle, watch them fall
to their death; it can also happen if the vehicle is squad only
and they (or you) get kicked from the squad

C4

explosive; used to work through shields; a favourite exploit of
many people that lived in biolabs; you can drop it from roofs

Ground Debris

you spawn at a sundy and you watch yourself die when it explodes
and some part of it crushes you

Air Debris

some elite pilot scores a kill and the remains of the victim
fall on your head

Hand Grenade

explosive; has a special place in my heart, because they used
to have an insane blast radius

Sticky Grenade

explosive

Anti-Vehicle Grenade

explosive

AMS Sunderer Spawn

gifted drivers can park their sundy on the edge of a bridge
or cliff. respawn and fall to your death

AMS Sunderer

spawn or try to resupply from a sunderer when it slides a pixel
and roadkills you

Falling To Death

this one is especially nice when you expect an elevator to be
there, but SOE forgot to add it. also happens when running
downhill